Month: December 2014

If you thought 2014 was a big year for self-storage, wait till you see what some operators have in store for 2015. The SpareFoot Storage Beat has identified eight storage operators that are poised to expand aggressively in 2015, and these independent operators have shared their growth plans with us. Combined, the operators seek to…

SpareFoot launched The Storage Beat blog in March with one goal in mind — to provide timely, compelling, authoritative articles catering to the self-storage industry. The Storage Beat aims to be a resource for those exploring the industry for the first time, as well as a go-to source of news for storage operators, brokers and…

In what might be the highest price paid for a self-storage facility in 2014, Public Storage recently bought a 160,000-square-foot storage facility in Sunnyvale, CA, for $40 million. The Silicon Valley Business Journal identified the seller as Highridge Partners, a commercial and residential real estate investment firm. The facility, at 875 E. Arques St., had…

Portable moving and storage provider PODS is getting a new owner. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has struck a deal to buy the company for an undisclosed sum. The deal is set to be completed in the first quarter of 2015. In September, Reuters reported that a sale of PODS was being explored, with the…

Storage-on-demand startup Boxbee has secured $5 million in venture capital to finance its expansion. Metamorphic Ventures, a New York City, NY-based venture capital firm, led the funding round. VC firms Floodgate and Northgate, along with an unnamed “home improvement giant,” also chipped in funding. In addition to entering new markets, Boxbee said it would use…

Metro Storage has snagged a site in New Jersey for its latest conversion project. The Lake Forest, IL-based operator bought the 4-acre site on Route 22 in Springfield, NJ, for $5.5 million. Sixth Avenue Electronics, a New York City-based chain that went out of business in 2011, formerly owned the site. The Springfield facility will…

Atlanta, GA-based Safeguard Self Storage is investing $6.5 million to equip 25 facilities in New York and New Jersey with solar energy. Collectively, the solar installations will provide two-thirds of the energy for the facilities. Some facilities will get as much as 95 percent of their power from the sun. Key Equipment Finance provided financing,…

Following tremendous growth this year, 2015 promises to be another solid year for the self-storage industry — with a catch. That’s the word from Nick Malagisi (pictured at top), managing director at Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate and organizer of the New York Self Storage Association’s annual Real Estate and Finance Forum. The event will be…

Real estate development firm DealPoint Merrill LLC plans to convert a former Walmart store in Joliet, IL, into an 865-unit self-storage facility. The Joliet City Council recently approved a special use permit for the conversion project (artist’s rendering at top). The 116,000-square-foot retail building, at 305 S. Larkin Ave., has been vacant for seven years….

With more than $77.5 million in hand from private investors, Morningstar Properties is on track to buy as many as 15 self-storage facilities in 2015 and build as many as eight. The Charlotte Business Journal reported a “small group” of institutional investors pumped the money into the Blue Doors Storage Fund II, a private equity vehicle…